DiscussMormonism.com

This was from a thread immediately closed on MAD:

Hospital CEO Henry J. Buhrmann and hospital lawyer Quentin Cook formed a MGH shell corporation, got all five directors to sign their 30-year lease, and then siphoned millions of dollars of public assets to the shell. The Sutter Health hospital chain acquired the lease in early 1996. Fortunately for California residents any lease similar to this one would now require voter approval.

http://www.coastalpost.com/07/09/05.html

While they were both lawyers involved in health care, I am hoping these are two different people. Does anyone know?

Bump

moksha wrote:This was from a thread immediately closed on MAD:

Hospital CEO Henry J. Buhrmann and hospital lawyer Quentin Cook formed a MGH shell corporation, got all five directors to sign their 30-year lease, and then siphoned millions of dollars of public assets to the shell. The Sutter Health hospital chain acquired the lease in early 1996. Fortunately for California residents any lease similar to this one would now require voter approval.

http://www.coastalpost.com/07/09/05.html

While they were both lawyers involved in health care, I am hoping these are two different people. Does anyone know?

Gosh, he's gonna fit right in!

Hi Moksha,
Yes, he is. Elder Quentin L. Cook New Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The LDS Church.

He lived in Hillsborough, California for 27 years, working as a business lawyer and managing partner of a San Francisco law firm, then as the CEO of California health care company. He also served his community for 14 years as a volunteer city attorney.

It is difficult to believe that two different Quentin Cooks from the same area were doing such similar things.

Moksha, here are four quotes, the first two about the apostle and the latter two about the con-man. The third indicates that the con-man was, in fact, CEO of CHS, just like the apostle. Thus, I'd say it's the same guy.

"For Elder Cook, commitment to career resulted in 27 years as a business lawyer and three years as president of California Healthcare Systems. Commitment to community led to 14 years of volunteer service as a city attorney."

http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/without/wol3/cookql1.htm

"In 1963, Quentin Cook received a Bachelor's Degree from Utah State University. He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from Stanford University in 1966. He lived in Hillsborough, California for 27 years, working as a business lawyer and managing partner of a San Francisco law firm, then as the CEO of California health care company. He also served his community for 14 years as a volunteer city attorney."

http://moroni10.com/quentin_cook.html

"In 1996 California Healthcare System and MGH were merged into Sutter Health, Sacramento. Quentin Cook by then also was CEO of CHS. His 1995 CEO salary was $311,479 just from CHS. The same year Buhrmann paid himself $379,401 as MGH CEO. Buhrmann, in the 1996 merger also became a Sutter official."

http://members.aol.com/mshcc/news/cp-4.htm

'Millions of dollars of public assets were transferred to the MGH shell corporation in 1985. Probably the comment of a county supervisor at the time, Gary Giacomini, was the most memorable about the event: "The biggest theft of public property in Marin's history."'

http://www.pacificsun.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=358

why is this huckster not in jail?

Mercury wrote:why is this huckster not in jail?

Maybe he did nothing illegal. That is not to suggest it was ethical, or "Christlike."

Hahahahahaha!!!

Boy, this is the laugh I've needed all day.

Discernment!

CaliforniaKid wrote:'Millions of dollars of public assets were transferred to the MGH shell corporation in 1985. Probably the comment of a county supervisor at the time, Gary Giacomini, was the most memorable about the event: "The biggest theft of public property in Marin's history."'

http://www.pacificsun.com/square/index.php?I=3&d=&t=358

You know, I wonder whether the LDS Church accepted tithes and offerings from millions of dollars that were diverted from this public hospital to an account in the Cayman islands. Do you think he paid tithing on this 'increase'?

By the way, to clear up the point about legality somewhat:

Siphoning money from a non-profit to a for-profit entity is legal. Marin General, a hospital owned by residents of the Marin Healthcare District (all of Marin except Novato), has been a victim of that since its 1985 privatization. Siphoned money is patient revenue diverted from patient care. For years privatized Marin General had diverted millions of dollars, but that role has now been assumed by Sutter Health.

But:

Buhrmann and Cook were then public employees. It is violation of California Government Code, Section 1090, for a public employee to make contracts that benefit himself. Both Buhrmann and Cook left public employment to join the private Marin General Hospital Corp. The lease, therefore, is illegal. Buhrmann and cook graciously supplied all the necessary evidence to make the district board's case solid.

See? Clear as mud.

See:http://www.coastalpost.com/98/2/7.htm

More interesting tidbits:

In contract Gary Giacomini, then a county supervisor, called it "the biggest theft of public property in Marin's history."

See:http://www.coastalpost.com/04/08/25.htm

On the effectiveness of the privatization:

Marin General Hospital is a case in point. Marin General was sold to CHS in 1985. It is now $46 million in debt.

According to Doctor Norman Carigg, who has been with the hospital for 36 years, "the quality of patient care is at its nadir now. Part of the blame can be placed upon managed care," but Carigg places the rest of the blame on CHS, which he says has siphoned millions of dollars to its San Francisco offices.

See:http://www.albionmonitor.com/community/ch-marin.html

Perhaps the most interesting, or at least clear, of all:

Marin General Chief Executive Officer Henry Buhrmann and Charles Mason, former head of Mills-Peninsula, each led his respective hospital district into a privatization deal. Each subsequently became the top executive of the nonprofit that leased the formerly public hospital.

Quentin Cook -- an attorney formerly with the San Francisco law firm of Carr, McClellan, Ingersoll, Thompson & Horn -- represented the districts in both deals. Cook became the attorney for the nonprofit health care organizations created in those deals to lease the once-public hospitals.

In their lawsuits, the districts allege that Cook and the CEOs violated a conflict-of-interest law preventing government employees from participating in transactions in which they stand to gain from the outcome. Therefore, they argue that the 1985 hospital leases, which are still in place, are invalid.

Both districts allege that those leases heavily favor the nonprofits -- now part of Sutter -- leaving the public with little say in health care issues and virtually no income from the hospitals. "There's a mission that district hospitals have, and there's a mission that nonprofits have, and they are not the same," says Marin Health Care District Board Member Linda Remy. "District hospitals are the only form of organization for hospitals where the mission is to serve everyone in the community."

See:http://www.sfweekly.com/1998-01-21/news/sutter-s-empire-strikes-back/